Quick Gifts to Knit: Cowls

Here we are two weeks from Christmas, firmly ensconced in Hanukkah, and I bet you're frantically knitting away at gifts. Am I right? Well, if you've finally realized that all those socks for every family member knit on size 1 needles aren't going to knit themselves you're probably looking for alternative gift ideas. Here we go- these are some of my favorite free fast cowl patterns

I'll start off by tooting my own horn. My GSZ cowl is free (see the sidebar at right) and is super quick to knit in one skein of Malabrigo Rasta. Finish time for one of those bad boys is between 2 and 4 hours. Toot!

Last year I knit the Gaptastic Cowl out of two skeins of Cascade 128 Superwash for Little A's teacher. Two shortish evenings of knitting and I had a cowl just long enough to loop around for extra warmth. The beauty of this cowl is that you just knit seed stitch until you're almost out of yarn and then bind off so it's easily adjustable for both length and width.

The Burberry Inspired Cowl is a nice cabley pattern without being overly fussy. This cowl is knit flat lengthwise and then seamed. I knit mine with two skeins of Malabrigo Twist but you can easily alter the pattern to use up more skeins or less, like my friend Jen.

A perpetual favorite is the Dolores Park Cowl knit in one skein of Malabrigo Chunky. This is pretty much as simple as it gets. Chunky yarn, stockinette in the round, and a few increases make this cowl totally doable for newbie knitters or those of us in a time crunch.

This final pattern is one I've been stalking on Ravelry as of late - the Understory Cowl. It's a nice combination of pretty lace and aran weight yarn knit on size 10 needles. I think it would be easy to adjust circumference-wise once you figure out the number of stitches in the lace repeat. But really, I like the bold lace pattern with the heavy yarn. It looks extra squishy and toasty but pretty, too.

There you have it. Five free cowl patterns knit in heavy-ish weight yarns that could make it under the Christmas tree this year. Happy knitting!